


Return to the Spirit World

by iamyouropus (adieu_sweetamaryllis)



Category: Avatar: Legend of Korra
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-01-13
Updated: 2015-01-13
Packaged: 2018-03-07 11:27:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,409
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3172580
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/adieu_sweetamaryllis/pseuds/iamyouropus
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Final episode AU. </p>
<p>Korra returns from the spirit world alone, without Kuvira. Though Korra is not sure what happened to the Great Uniter, the vague memories she has of what happened when the two were blasted into the other side by Kuvira's spirit canon are not encouraging, and have Tenzin on edge. She is joined by her friend, Asami, as they return to the spirit world to try to save Kuvira from whatever forces have seized her.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Return to the Spirit World

“Korra?”

Her eyes have barely adjusted from the bright flash as she searches the landscape, looking for any sign that the Avatar had survived the battle. Her mind is spinning, bright spots still clouding her vision from the flash of the canon. She tries to picture the scene that was before her just a minute before. Was that where Korra had been standing?

There’s a patch of scorched earth that Kuvira’s wild canon had struck. Asami swallows hard, the fear creeping steadily from her chest up her throat.

It all happened too fast — her father, her best friend. She barely had time to process what had happened to one before the other disappeared in a flash of spirit energy. Her chest lurches at the thought of what had become of her friend. 

“Korra?” 

Her voice joins others, a chorus, but she doesn’t stop to see who else is searching. No one else matters now, not after that fight, not after the way Korra had disappeared in the bright beam of Kuvira’s super weapon. Not when Korra could be —

“Korra?!” 

Her voice is hoarse this time, anguished. Korra had been standing there, she was sure of it now. Everything nearby has been destroyed, nothing left but smoke and rubble. The spirit vines are moving, coiling, rejecting the disturbance that Kuvira has caused. 

Kuvira. Asami clenches her jaw as she realizes that the “Great Uniter” is nowhere to be seen as well. Had her own weapon destroyed her? Had Korra sacrificed herself to take the young leader down?

“Here!” the call comes out at last. “She’s here, I’ve got her!” 

Asami spins, her chest flooding with relief so strong that she almost gives in to the urge to sink to her knees. She can see Korra now, limp in Mako’s arms, skin blackened by dirt and and fire and god knows what else. Her clothes are torn, her cheeks tear-stained, and Asami rushes forward, joined by Tenzin and his family. 

She resists the urge to bend down and kiss the girl’s dirtied forehead, knowing the gesture would be inappropriately intimate, especially in front of everyone else. Yes, their dynamic had changed in the past few months, but not in a way that had been spoken aloud. For all Asami knew, the other girl’s feelings could be unchanged from the first steps of their friendship, years ago.

To Korra, she could still be the loyal, trusting friend — nothing more. Who’s to say their late night discussions had changed anything between the two of them for the Avatar? The touches, the glances, the moments of stillness that fell between them when they were alone together… Asami did have a habit of inventing things, after all. Why not feelings? 

There had barely been time to even think about the possibility of there being something more between them. A few short months were all they had, and before that were years of longing to see Korra again, or even just to hear from her. The loneliness that Asami had known during that period had snuck deep into her heart, finding a home in the older girl’s chest. Even now that she is here, alive, in front of her, Asami still feels as if almost no time has passed since she got her only letter from Korra during those three long years. 

She recognized the other girl’s scrawl instantly. Not that she had seen Korra’s handwriting often, but there was something so familiar in the way the words sloped across the page ungracefully. The letter was so short that she read it all at once, taking in the Avatar’s words greedily, the first words anyone had heard from her in months. And there they were, all laid out in black ink, scratched into parchment. And they were just for her. 

“It's easier to tell you about this stuff…”

She’d be lying if she said she hadn’t felt a spark of hope in that moment. 

Confusion quickly snuffed it out. 

Why her? Why, after three years, was she the one that Korra reached out to? She would never ask the girl herself. No, not after Mako had done that for her at dinner, and the look of bewilderment on Korra’s face told her everything she needed to know. 

Korra didn’t know why. It hadn’t even occurred to her that it was strange that she would write to Asami of all people, instead of Mako, her ex-boyfriend turned best-friend or Bolin, the loveable goofball that Korra had a connection with from the moment they first met. She didn’t think it was strange that she had reached out to the girl with whom she had built a relationship while competing for Mako’s attention, the girl who’s father had been so quick to betray the young Avatar. 

There had always been reasons for Korra to doubt Asami’s trustworthiness. But she never did, not even once. In fact, she had gone so far as to make Asami the only person she trusted to contact and communicate with. She confided in her, and it drove the inventor crazy not knowing why. 

“It's easier to tell you about this stuff…”

Because all that time, something deeper had been building between the two. At least, Asami thought so. But the dinner had proven to her that Korra didn’t recognize the relationship between them as strange or unusual, worthy of a second thought. Asami was terrified to find out if Mako’s prompting had brought out some deeper thinking in the Avatar.

For now, she’s content to see Korra alive and unharmed, even if it is in the arms of her former boyfriend. 

//

They wait for hours as she sleeps. 

Asami takes up guard on the bench just outside Korra’s room but does not enter. She’s spent enough nights inside, comforting her friend when she wakes up in terror, but something is stopping her from opening that door. 

Maybe it’s the fact that Mako carried her in several hours ago, and hasn’t emerged since. 

Asami adjusts against her stone perch, trying to free a knot that has been forming in her back the past few minutes. Tenzin left to fetch his mother almost immediately after Korra retired to her room, knowing that the healer’s skills would be needed if the Avatar was to get back into fighting shape any time soon. That is, if there is anyone to fight anymore. No one has seen or heard from Kuvira ever since she and Korra disappeared after she lost control of the spirit canon.

Bolin snores in the other room. Asami’s eyes are heavy, and she wonders if he has the right idea. 

Then the door opens.

Mako comes out first. She assumes the Avatar is still in the room resting when she notices small feet behind the larger man’s, slinking in his shadow. When Korra finally comes into view, Asami’s eyes nearly fill with tears. The girl before her is more broken than she has ever seen the young Avatar. Her injuries are far worse than Asami noticed earlier that day, blinded by the relief that her friend was alive. 

Korra’s face is cut, a gash across her lip and jaw that will probably scar if Katara doesn’t get to it soon. Her arm, bared by the girl’s torn water tribe outfit, is bruised heavily, turning a deep purple on her bicep. She strongly favors her left leg as she walks, placing her right down gingerly. 

Asami rushes to her side, sliding underneath her arm to support her. 

“Here, let me…” she says, and for the first time since they’ve arrived home Korra’s eyes meet hers. There is a sadness there that Asami did not expect, but she only gets to see it for a moment before the girl turns.

“Thanks,” Korra mummers back, training her eyes forward. 

They move together, Mako holding her up on one side, Asami on the other, as they make their way steadily down the hall. Where they’re headed isn’t a question. If Korra is awake, there is no time to waste before they decide what their next move is. 

The first thing Asami notices as they enter the living room is that Katara and Tenzin have arrived. They must have gotten in only moments before — Tenzin is fumbling with his mother’s bags, and Katara is making conversation with Lin. 

A silence falls over the room as they enter.

“Korra,” Tenzin exclaims after a beat, dropping the luggage to rush forward. Korra’s arm falls from around her friends’ shoulders; the sudden departure of its warmth sends a chill down Asami’s back. “You shouldn’t be up, not in this condition. Please—“ 

“Tenzin,” the battered girl interrupts. There’s a long pause before he sighs, his shoulders falling in resignation. When it comes to a battle of wills with Korra, the older man has realized by now that fighting is futile. Korra nods towards the couch, and Mako and Tenzin help her over to it. 

Katara immediately beings to ask the girl questions in a hushed voice. Asami turns her head, knowing that this information should be kept private. Besides, hearing the long list of her friend’s injuries would do nothing to calm her stomach, which has been anxiously turning ever since the girl’s disappearance. 

After a few minutes, Katara becomes silent, and the only sound in the room is the water as she moves it back and forth over the Avatar’s bruised body. 

Asami’s head falls against the back of her chair. She tries not to think about all the times she’s seen the Avatar injured; if anything, her memories should give her more faith that her friend – her tough, strong-headed friend – could survive anything. 

But the more she thinks about Korra’s recovery from all the awful things that have happened to her over the few short years they’ve been friends, the harder it is to keep her mind off of all the times she’s seen her friend break. The way the girl cries in her sleep, the look of pure fear on her face when she bolts out of bed from a bad dream… Asami knows too much about Korra to believe the tough-girl exterior now. 

The first night she heard Korra scream, she thought she was losing her friend again. Just a few days after Korra had come back to Air Temple Island, the possibility had seemed so real. The Red Lotus had captured her, they were torturing her, killing her just one room over. Fear filled Asami as she sprinted down the hall, not bothering to knock before she burst into her friend’s room.

After that night it became almost routine. Everyone would go to their rooms. Asami would lay in bed, read a book, work on a design, whatever she could do to keep her occupied until she was sure everyone else was asleep. Once she was sure no one was looking, she would sneak down the hall. 

They didn’t get much sleep those nights, though Asami suspects that was intentional on the Avatar’s part. They would talk about everything and nothing. Korra would tell Asami about her tribe’s traditions and customs, something which the young inventor was very curious to learn about. She had never had much exposure to culture of that sort, not growing up in her mansion. And she shared her world with Korra, too — her creations, her ambitions and even her fears. Korra listened with open ears. 

Never once did her friend mention that in just a few weeks she would be leaving the air temple to return home, to rest and heal. 

“I’ve done all I can for now,” Katara says after some time has gone by. Asami isn’t sure whether its been five minutes or an hour, but Korra doesn’t look all that much better, wincing as she sits up. 

Korra keeps her gaze lowered, and Asami silently wills her friend to look at her. 

It’s Tenzin who finally breaks the silence. 

“Korra, where is Kuvira?” he asks, straight-to-the-point as always.

Blue eyes darken, and Korra’s mouth turns downward sourly. “I… I don’t know.” 

“You didn’t see her?” Tenzin is quick to question, acting on an urgency only he seems to recognize. 

Korra leans against Mako, seated next to her on the couch. Asami watches closely the way her forehead presses into the boy’s shoulder, eyes clenching shut quickly.

“What I saw…” Korra starts, voice broken and low. “I’m not sure if it was Kuvira. The person I saw, they were… dark. Screaming. The sound, it was…” she leaves it there, and Asami shifts uneasily. 

Tenzin frowns. There’s an understanding in it that Asami wishes she could discover, but knows questioning him would be useless. Tenzin has never had reason to trust her, and she doubts that he would start now. 

“We have to help her,” Korra decides, her eyes piercing as they look up. 

There’s a spirit them that Asami hasn’t seen in Korra’s eyes in years. Not since Amon had broken her, stolen her bending and her innocence. Not since Vaatu had settled deep inside the girl’s soul, waiting for his chance to return and destroy everything the Avatar stood for. Not since Zaheer had poisoned her and filled her with a darkness that would seep into her for three long years, cutting her off from the spiritual world and putting a rift between the Avatar and her loved ones. 

“I don’t think—“ Tenzin is shaking his head already, and Asami is inclined to agree with whatever reason he comes up with to tell the girl no. Whatever “help” her friend is planning, Asami is sure the Avatar wouldn’t be playing a passive role. And although Katara is a great healer, Korra’s wounds were definitely beyond the help one session of healing could offer.

“Tenzin,” Korra interrupts, barely letting him start. Her voice sounds much stronger than she looks. “Kuvira is still out there. She’s scared and hurt and its my job as the Avatar to help her.” 

Tenzin glances towards his mother, hoping that the healer will object to her patient’s wishes, but Katara wears a knowing look. The head-strong nature of the young avatar is not unfamiliar to her, and Asami doesn’t know how she doubted it for even a second. Korra would not sit idly by and let others clean up the mess she blames herself for making. The Avatar would not stand by and let others live in pain.

“I have to go back to the spirt world.”


End file.
